The other day, I heard about a site called STFUParents. So call me a blogger come lately. Anyway, I thought it sounded kind of interesting, so I went there looking for some laughs and blog ideas. I got both. MommyJacking? Hysterical. Sanctimommy? Priceless. The site isn't about "child hating" or "mommy hating," it's about clueless people hating. The fact that I asked my friend who has four kids if she'd ever heard of it and she replied that she follows the site on Facebook proves this isn't an anti-mommy site. An anti-mommy-without-a-sense-of-humor site, maybe.
But there's something about the site that doesn't sit well with me, and it isn't the fact that it pokes fun of oversharing, overindulgent, over-everything mamas. It's that it uses screenshots of these mamas' exact words from posts they leave on Facebook.
Don't get me wrong. When someone posts a lyric from "Monday Monday" and a proud mother responds with a mommyjacker like "Kaitlin said mamma" or a mother posts about how rude it is for people to flush loudly in a rest stop bathroom when her baby is sleeping (as if restrooms aren't for people who might, well, have to flush) ... I guess you could say these self-obsessed mamas get what they deserve.
BUT. Maybe they don't. Sure, they are being sanctimonious, clueless "mombies." But they thought their remarks were being shared with friends, and maybe friends of friends, not strangers on the Internet. Keep in mind, these are not public postings. They are being submitted to STFUParents by friends, who keep themselves totally anonymous.
The founder of STFUParents (and other sites with similar concepts) blocks out most identifying information. But it doesn't take a genius to figure out, if Alison posted such-and-such and Heather (who has a daughter named Kaitlin) responds, who these women are. There may be people these women have deliberately not friended on Facebook who are now reading their words elsewhere. These women didn't choose to be published writers. Nor did they sign off on the written material they generated (which is technically copyrighted).
People on Facebook feel they are sharing information with people they know and trust. Even if what they are sharing is silly, stupid, or just plain repugnant -- as some of the STFUParents postings are -- they still have a right to privacy.
One day I might see a post that is just so damn hilarious or so damn offensive that I'm going to be very, very tempted to send it in to an oversharing site. But, until that day, your silly, self-indulgent posts are safe with me. Unless one of you submits me to STFUCatLadies. Then game on!
Have you ever submitted a friend's post to a site?
Image via STFUParents
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Comments 65
Anything you post in the internet can become public. There is no such thing as privacy on Facebook. Anything you post can and will be seen by other people. That is why people need to understand once it is on the internet it will never go away. So if you don't want your stuff to show up on websites like these and others then don't post on the internet.
I LOVE that website! And I don't think there are issues with privacy, and people can request that a post about them can be removed if someone does identify them and let them know about it.
Someone has never heard of failbook...
The idea of someone knowing who they are based on first names is rather idiotic. How many Alisons in the world have a friend named Heather with a daughter named Kaitlin? Probably a lot.
Also, this is a comment on someone elses status. The idea that this is somehow private is ridiculous. If that friends profile is public, its aleady available for the whole internet to read.
This is a great website!! It's hysterical and it's about time someone stuck it to preachy, holier-than-thou parents who think they're the first people to ever raise a child!
I believe it is because of the new layout and "stalking" capabilities of the site, but anything you post now has the possibility to be seen by anyone and everyone because once someone comments or likes your post, that goes onto their feed and their friends can see it, and their friends friends can see it and so on.